Dear McElroy boys,

I’m writing this now because I’ve just finished the final episode. It's been a wild ride, huh?

When I started listening to TAZ it was two years ago. I made my way through the podcast, and what started off as a slightly awkward DnD campaign between three brothers and their dad turned into one of the best things in my life.

Trying to get through university and dealing with my brain was proving to be difficult, but listening to TAZ helped me feel a little bit lighter. I’ve listened to all of it (Story and Song excepting) at least three times. It’s a huge comfort and I suspect it will continue to be.

I actually came to your family of products by accident. I saw a couple of Monster Factory videos, heard a few clips of MBMBAM, saw some Car Boys, and when I linked together the common thread I started listening to TAZ. I now listen to… well, essentially every podcast you each have a hand in. Your senses of humour (and your lovely wives and friends!) are a genuine delight.

Being trans and queer means that I can’t often find good reflections of myself in fantasy books, and the text-dense epics I used to devour are often impossible for me to read. I’ve carefully surrounded my soundscape with podcasts with people like me.

I wasn’t expecting TAZ to be one of those. It would have been so very, very easy for you guys to not make that effort.

It would have been easy to throw in one NPC character who was a basic stereotype, or their identity wasn’t part of their character, but you did so much more.

I am so very, very proud of how you have engaged with your audience and made such a wonderful world that I, and people like me, can enjoy as we are. That you listened and learned and put that into your characters and play is amazing. You even brought back Sloan and Hurley from before you knew! You made a point that the bad things in Taako and Lup's lives weren't because of their identities! You didn't go with the joke of Lup's name!

Griffin, your storytelling improved so much so quickly! Each character felt like they could be a real person, the settings were wonderful, and the situations alternately ridiculous and serious in the best ways. Your production went from good to epic and the soundtrack is wicked. Your ability to think on your feet when Tres Horny Boys start breaking the game is great. The story is mind blowing. DMing is hard and exposing yourself like you do with a fantasy that you’ve created is even harder. You did so very very good.

Clint, your ability to go from wisecracks to heart stopping seriousness as situations change is genuinely awesome. You made an engaging character with depth who was flawed and brilliant and easy to like. I know it's running joke that you're not, but you're pretty damn good at DnD.

Travis, you and Justin seem to have a knack for knowing exactly when to joke and when to be serious to make the listeners laugh or cry. Rather than just being a meat mountain, you made a character who was both cheerful and achingly sad. The thought you put in to Magnus is more than I think anyone expected. I’m so happy that the way he died changed and I was crying my eyes out with so many feelings at the wonderful (after) life he gets to have and the life he built.

Justin, you made a multi-faceted character who had his identity be part of but not the only thing about him. I know that doesn’t necessarily sound that big, but it is. The way you handled the reveal of what Lucretia had done was absolutely stunning and the relationships you built with Kravitz and Lup are wonderful.

The development of all of your characters over the game was so great that I feel like I watched them grow up. From nihilistic to hopeful, from reckless to at peace, and from chaos to happiness, it’s been a journey I feel honoured to be a part of.

The ending was everything I could have hoped for and more.

It was so perfect and so well done and still so characteristically TAZ. It was overwhelmingly hopeful and bittersweet and it was so so lovely.

It was so beautiful in the characters and the unity and the pure love for this amazing thing that you have created that I’m not even sad that it is over, just glad that it has happened.

I'll probably think of a thousand more things to say, but it can be summed up pretty simply:

Thank you.

I hope that you’re as proud of TAZ as I think you should be.

(If you want to listen to The Adventure Zone, you can find it here, on iTunes, or any podcast app).